When merchandise is displayed on shelves for retail sale or the like, it is desirable for various kinds and brands of merchandise on a particular shelf to be separated by means of partitioning dividers that extend from front to rear across the width of the shelf. Shelf dividers serve to allocate a specific area of shelf to each line of merchandise, ensuring that every competing brand will have its fair share of the available shelf space. They encourage neat stocking of the shelves and orderly, attractive display of the merchandise that facilitates selection by the customer and promotes sales.
To be satisfactory, a shelf divider should be as thin as possible in order to occupy a minimum amount of shelf area. Obviously it should also be very inexpensive. Satisfying these requirements implies that it will also be very light in weight. Nevertheless, once in place on a shelf, a shelf divider should securely resist inadvertent displacement. However, merchandise display arrangements are changed rather frequently, to stimulate customer interest and to keep up with product changes and changing demands; and therefore deliberate shifting of a shelf divider should be quickly and easily accomplished.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,876 discloses an adjustable shelf divider having transversely extending flanges at its opposite ends that engage against the front and rear edges of a shelf on which the divider is installed. Among other limitations, such a device is not suitable for installation on a shelf that has its rear edge engaged against, or very close to, a wall or upright partition. Each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,954,184 and 4,181,229 discloses a shelf divider intended for cooperation with a perforated shelf, having securement portions which project down into the holes in the shelf and which preclude installation of the device on imperforate shelving. These prior patents demonstrate that another requirement for a satisfactory shelf divider is suitability for installation on both perforated and imperforate shelving, however arranged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,481 discloses a so-called shelf organizer which functions to partition a shelf on which it is installed and which is held in place by an adhesive coating on its bottom. Even if the coating is a permanently tacky material, the device can be shifted no more than a few times before it refuses to stick. Another disadvantage of securement by means of a tacky material is the ever-present possibility of the material stripping off of the device and sticking to the shelf, requiring an annoying cleaning operation.